your favorite Sesame Street alphabet video

[minor muppetz]

what is your favorite Sesame Street video that focuses on letter-themed sketches?

here is a list of all videos focusing on letters or the alphabet:
Learning About Letters
The Alphabet Game
Do The Alphabet
The Alphabet Jungle Game

I haven't seen the alphabet jungle game, but I like all of the videos in the order I listed, which is the same as chronological order.

 

[minor muppetz]

Learning About Letters

Hmm, I am surprised that nobody responded, so I am going to talk about why I think Learning About Letters is the best of these.

Learnign About Letters hardly has any outdated material in it (although I don't mind outdated Sesame Street material). With the exceptions of The Count, Prarie Dawn and Guy Smiley, this video has nearly every major sesame Street muppet from 1986. although this video was released in 1986, none of the inserts are from the 1980s. they are all from 1969 and the 1970s. there is a good mix of muppet and animated skits.

many of the skits are great. It includes the classic C Is For Cookie, as well as a skit where kermit draws the letter M in thin-air, a version of the alphabet song with leena horne, and ernie and berts "la, la, la" song.

However, there are some things I don't like, although they are (probably) minor.

This video should have been an hour-long, since not every letter of the alphabet was represented with a segment from the show. Oddly enough, the letter M is the only one represented with two segments (the one where kermit draws the letter M, and Mmmonster Meal). also strange is that the story at the end is about the letter p, when it could have been shown earlier. There should have been at least one harvey kneeslapper sketch on this video, and there also should have been a Guy Smiley sketch (either What's My Letter? or Mystery Guest). otherwise, this is a great video. easily a classic.

 

[SesameMike]

Alphabet Game

My favorite has to be the Alphabet Game with Grover and Oscar. Set with Grover standing alongside the ol' trash can, Grover only says nice, happy words, while Oscar mostly sticks to negative ones.

I posted the following over 10 years ago on USENET. Here it is again with a few edits.

GROVER: "I have a game. It's called 'Alphabet Game'."
OSCAR: (sarcastically) "Well I don't want to play...."
G: "I knew you wanted to play. I'll start first."
G: "A is for Apple"
O: "B is for Blecch"
G: "C is for Cute"
O: "D is for Disgusting"
G: "E is for Enjoy"
O: "F is for Fright-ful!"
G: "G is for Glad, and also for Grover"
O: "H is for Hor-ri-ble"
G: "I is for Ice Cream"
O: "J is for Junk!"
G: "K is for mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mphma"
(Grover plants a kiss on Oscar's mouth)
O: "Borble!" (as he wipes his mouth off)
G: "Kiss!"
O: "Well L is for Lousy" (wipes mouth off again)
G: "M is for Marvelous and N is for Nice. N is for Nice."
O: "O is for Oscar"
G: "Ohh. P is for Play"
O: "Q is for Quit!"
G: "R is for Run"
O: "S is for Sickening"
G: "T is for Train"
O: "U is for Uh-Gully." This was Oscar's way of pronouncing "Ugly"
G: "V is for Vanilla"
O: "W is for Wast!" I'm not sure of this one. My best guess is either "Waste" or "Worst"
G: "X is for Xylophone"
O: "And Y is for Yucky, and Z is for Zero, and that's how it is saying the
alphabet with you -- yucky and a great big zeeeroooooooooo."
(Angrily disappears into his can)
G: "I liked it."

 

[minor muppetz]

My favorite has to be the Alphabet Game with Grover and Oscar. Set with Grover standing alongside the ol' trash can, Grover only says nice, happy words, while Oscar mostly sticks to negative ones.

No offense, but i was talking about alphabet videos, not sketches. There was a video called the alphabet game that was released in 1987. The sketch you mentioned wasn't included on that video, nor was it on any of the other alphabet videos.

the Alphabet game took place at a game show called Alphabet treasure Hunt, hosted by Sonny Friendly. The object of this game was to find an object that begins with the letter that appears on some kind of board. whoever finds something gets a pice of cookie, and whoever gets all three pieces of cookie (no, cookie monster wasn't a contestant)is the winner. The Contestants were Big Bird, Dimples The Dog, and Gary Grouch (who could have easily been substitued for Oscar).

Sonny friendly was very oblivious to how the contestants won. Dimples the dog wouldn't let big bird find anything the first two times, and sonny friendly thought dimples was bringing in objects (the first letter was B, so he brought Big Bird, the secodn letter was F, so he brought in feathers). for the third letter, dimples actually allowed big bird to get something that began with the letter R while dimples rested (and sonny qualified resting as an object). Big Bird brought in a rabbit, but sonny friendly considered that to be a bunny.

Meanwhile, gary grouch didn't want to win, and he kept bringing in objects with those letters by accident. for the letter b, he brought in his trash can, which doesn't begin with B, but there were bugs in the trash can, which do begin with b. eventually, when the letter was r, he got so mad over succeeding that he drilled a hole in the ceilling, but it rained soon afterwards, and rain begins with r.

There was a video screen that often showed bonus letters, which just led to classic segments. Some of the segments on there included The Question Song, Wanda The Witch (from the very first episode), a cartoon about a scientist who invented the capital letter H, and more. the video also began with kermits swamp alphabet song.

 

[minor muppetz]

do the alphabet

Do The Alphabet is also a good video. easily one of the best sesame street videos from the late 1990s. although this one is lighter on clips than the other two, it includes a few classic songs, like dee dee dee and j friends. this video involved big bird helping baby bear learn the entire alphabet. betty lou also had a big part in this video, as did zoe and goldilocks. so if you are looking for a good sesame street video that wasn't made between 1986 and 1993, and doesn't focus on the best of any characters (or anniversaries), this is one to look for. Bert And Ernies Word Play is also good.

 

[Ziffel]

Just wanted to show Sesame Mike the thread I did a few months ago on the same skit. I really liked this skit a lot too. Vintage Oscar! I wouldn't have him any other way!

http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=19225&highlight=grover

 

[minor muppetz]

all-star alphabet

does anybody know whether the upcoming DVD release All-Star Alphabet is supposed to be The Alphabet Game with a different title (bedtime stories and songs was re-released under the title Sleepytime Songs and Stories), or an all-new release?

 

[MuppetDude]

I don't know, but I'd guess that it's a new video featuring celebrities in alphabet-related segments.

 

[minor muppetz]

I don't know, but I'd guess that it's a new video featuring celebrities in alphabet-related segments.

if it includes celebrities in alphabet-related segments, then it would be a no-brainer to include the version of the alphabet song with many celebraties, and I hope it inlcudes "U get a hold of me" and Norah Jonses' "don't know why Y didn't show".

If it is a new video, it is weird that there isn't an All-Star Numbers video, or any kind of new numbers release. normally, whenever new videos about letters are released, there are also new numbers videos, often similar to the others (learning about numbers and learning about letters have similar titles, for example). we know that learning to add and subtract is going to be released on DVD, but not The Alphabet Game.

 

[salemfan]

I like the animated sketch with animals, pixies, forming the letters of the alphabet. This can be seen at the end of the video, "Learning About Letters."